Tories make charities pay at HRCs

Wiltshire Conservatives have decreed that charities must pay if they want to take their waste to Household Recycling Centres. Up to now the service has been free. Those most affected are charities with shops where unsaleable donated goods have to be disposed of.

The fee will be £44 for six visits per year, or £70 for up to 12 visits. Some schools and housing associations will also be expected to pay.

The charges will come in in September, and the council expects to make £40,000 out of the change over the next financial year.

The council points out that if charities find other ways of disposing of their waste there will be savings on landfill tax, and that not having charities at the HRCs would help reduce the huge queues at the sites caused by the council's previous decision to reduce days and hours of opening.

Before implementing the fees WC did one of its notorious consultations. This is how it works:

WC - "We are proposing to do this Thing - do you think we should?"

The people of Wiltshire - "NO!"

WC - "Following consultation we have decided to do this Thing. Thankyou to everyone who took part in the consultation"

In fact charities did universally oppose the charges, saying it would cost them money which should be going to good causes, and pointing out that they were providing a service to the public by recycling usable goods, which would be more difficult to carry out if they couldn't easily dispose of less useful items.